Ten Top Kitchen Gadgets for the Kosher Cook

Buy New Kitchen Gadgets at Passover

We present 10 must-have cooking and prep gadgets for the kosher kitchen, just in time to buy for Passover. Most are new, but some are classic. We think that these are all winners both for Passover and everyday!

Salad Sac Soggy Salad! After checking, washing, rinsing, and checking again our greens are wet! What a lengthy process to dry greens. But, wait! We found a solution. As we wandered the gift show we came upon the salad sac. And yes, it works well. In addition to absorbing any remaining moisture from our greens, lettuce stays fresh in the refrigerated sac for at least 3 days. Now that’s a find at only $10. But wait, there’s more—no problem cleaning the sac- it goes right in the washing machine!

Duralex Stackable Mixing Bowls They nest; they’re microwave safe; freezer–safe and oven-safe to 212 degrees. This set of ten is so useful, easy to store with bowls of graduated sizes, starting from a 1–ounce mini bowl to the largest a 3–1/2 quart size. Duralex is made in France and is created by the inventors of tempered glass. And, yes there’s more-–they are nice enough to bring to the table as well! Tempered for cold or hot ingredients, these bowls withstand temperature extremes from -4 to +212 F. So, treat yourself or a new bride!

Chef’N Pepper Ball Clear - Rabbit This fun design –makes us smile. It is an easy to use, one handed pepper mlll, with an adjustable grinding mechanism, an Ergonomic handle, a steel rasp, and comes filled with fresh peppercorns. But, yes there’s more – this happy design is also available in a Sea Salt rabbit.

Microplane Kitchen Gloves Just like professional chefs, home cooks carry our own very special badges of kitchen honor – burns and cuts, niches and scars, which prove our love of cooking! Yes, the kitchen can be a dangerous place.

For the burns, we recommend a live aloe plant, at the ready, at all times, and placed near a kitchen window. An aloe plant is easy to grow, needs little water, and is very soothing when the inevitable burn occurs. But, we have now discovered the remedy for our cuts – the amazing Microplane protective, cut resistant kitchen glove. Just put this lightweight, machine washable glove on the hand holding the vegetable or fruit, and cut or slice away. The glove will protect you from niches and scrapes. Now, we didn’t say it is foolproof, but with the standard kitchen sous chef jobs this glove adds an extra layer of safety. It is cut resistant, NOT cut proof. And, yes there’s more! it is made by the people who sell those excellent Microplane graters! (More on those another time- but if you don’t have one or two, add them to your must have list)

Oxo Good Grips Food Mill We really did see this one on TV and just had to have it! We remembered the vintage food mill in our grandmother’s kitchen, before the days of the food processor. And now it is back, with a 21st century twist! The Oxo Good Grips food mill is an easy to use, versatile tool for preparing fresh purees, sauces, soups and more. It has a stainless steel inner bowl that is ideal for hot foods and will not stain, and includes three stainless steel grinding discs for fine, medium and coarse textures. The fine disc is recommended for homemade jellies and baby food; the medium disc for vegetable soups and applesauce and the coarse disc we can attest to the best-mashed potatoes we have ever made! The discs are simple to interchange, and the entire food mill, including the discs are dishwasher safe! Now back to the TV chef, it was one of our favorites, Ann Burrell. She has inspired us to use our food mill this summer to make homemade marinara sauce from our freshly grown San Marzano tomatoes. Yumm! Can’t wait!

RÖSLE Onion & Vegetable ChopperNo electric parts, easy to clean, easy to store and what a nice compact way to cut a few onions or vegetables without bringing out the big gun- namely the food processor or our William Sonoma Food chopper. We use our Rosle, or as the company has named it, our kitchen friend, to chop an onion or two, a few pieces of vegetables or for minor chopping tasks. We love it, and think you will as well!

You’ll be NUTS over this NUT Chopper! We simply can never chop nuts without making a big mess, unless we bring out the food processor. Here’s the answer Progressive International Heavy Duty Nut Chopper–less than $10 on Amazon.com We reserve ours for Passover and chop all of our nuts for charoses, salads and baking.

Chef'N EmulstirHomemade salad dressing is easy to make, healthy, and cost effective. With this handy all–in–one Emulstir, making salad dressing is a breeze. The acrylic container is clearly marked with measurement indicators and three recipes. The top cover has a stir stick mix attachment that is lever activated for easy mixing (and remixing if any salad dressing is left over). Just pour in the ingredients, hand activate (press) the stir stick mixer, and pour to "dress" your salad. Leftover dressing can be stored in the Emulstir in the refrigerator. Top rack dishwasher safe. A welcome addition to our salad making tools.

For more information, and to watch a video demonstration, please visit Chefn.com. Available on Amazon.com.

Chef'N Garlic Zoom Garlic – we love it! The new Chef'N Garlic Zoom is our favorite new gadget for chopping garlic. Just pop in the peeled whole garlic cloves, close the top, and roll back and forth on the counter top– the cutting blades does the rest. The stainless steel blade is removable for easy cleaning. Top rack dishwasher safe. Do yourself a favor and leave the garlic chopping to the Garlic Zoom.

For more information, and to watch a video demonstration, please visit Chefn.com. Availabe on Amazon.com.